Exciting news — GroundControl integrates directly with your CMM!

To access this feature, navigate to Form 3. Before uploading your measurements, please ensure that the balloons which correspond with your CMM measurements are already ballooned within the software.

Once you have completed your balloons, click the CMM Import button in the toolbar to upload your CMM measurements.

Drag your files in or choose Browse Files. CSV, Excel, and PDF reports are supported, and PDF reports are read through automatic matching only. Give it a second to process your CMM file, then GroundControl will display the contents of your file to you.

Automatic matching is the default, and a link at the top lets you switch to Configure columns manually if you prefer to map columns yourself.

GroundControl reads your report, finds where each measurement lives, and matches it to a characteristic when exactly one characteristic fits. If everything matches, you go straight to Review and Import. If a layout cannot be read, GroundControl opens the manual column setup instead.

Checking Measurements

Anything GroundControl could not match with confidence appears on Check Measurements, with the reason beside it, such as more than one characteristic fitting or no characteristic having that number. Choose a characteristic and result for each flagged measurement, or exclude it. Use the tabs to switch between Measurements to check and All measurements, and use the source panel beside the grid to see where each value came from.

Reading PDF Reports

For a PDF, GroundControl reads each page and compares the printed measured value, nominal, and deviation. A reading imports on its own only when those three are present. A reading that does not have all the components, or that has no tolerances to check, goes to Check Measurements with a crop of its page beside the values as printed, so you can confirm it against the source. Password protected PDFs cannot be read so do keep that in mind.

GroundControl will attempt to identify your header row and first data row automatically, although you can set this manually, too. Click continue once these are set.

If your CMM report is formatted with each dimension as a column, rather than the default of rows, you can adjust how our software reads your report with the "Layout" button.

 If you do not have any headers in your CMM report, make sure to untick the "First row contains Headers" box, then select that first data row and click continue.

 If you uploaded multiple CMM files, click next and repeat the previous step for each of them.

 GroundControl will attempt to automatically match your CMM file's columns to the table in Form 3. However, if it is unable to, or if you would like to do so manually, you can match each column with the appropriate header on this screen. All you have to do is click and drag on a column in the "Available Columns" section, and drop it in the corresponding box in the "Column Mapping" section.

A fully mapped CMM spreadsheet will look something like this in GroundControl:

Press the Next button until you have mapped every uploaded CMM spreadsheet (if you uploaded more than one at a time). Once you have completed all mapping, click Continue at the top right of the CMM Import window.

Once you have clicked continue through all the steps earlier, you will see the Review & Import section. This will display your CMM output, now appropriately organized, with automatically consolidated measurements. You can exclude rows, filter out rows, and expand any consolidated rows.

Review and Import shows your results before anything is saved. Choose where the results go under Import into, including different samples if your report has multiple samples. Use the Import checkbox on each row to include or exclude it, and use Filters to include or exclude groups of rows by label.

You can also set the number of decimal places from your results that you would like to include in the import, so you can match your results to the precision of your characteristic requirements.

Repeated Measurements and Sub Balloons

If your report has several measurements for one characteristic, open Import options and look under Repeated results. Turn on Split repeated results into sub balloons to place each value on its own balloon, such as 4, 4.1, and 4.2. Turn on Leave parent balloon empty to start at 4.1 and leave the parent without a result from this import. GroundControl creates any sub balloon characteristics you do not have yet, and remembers your choices for next time. You can still handle one row at a time with Combine results, which can keep all values, show the lowest to highest, or split into sub balloons.

For characteristics of multiple quantities, you can choose to display them individually, separate by a semi-colon, or display them as ranges. If you'd like to apply either of those to all characteristics, you can do so in the "Filters" section.

Following a Balloon to Your Drawing

Balloon numbers in the preview are links. Click one to jump to its balloon on your drawing. A new sub balloon is marked New sub-balloon, which means import will add its Form 3 row but you will still need to place its balloon on the drawing.

Importing Data

When everything looks good to you, click Import Data in the top right and your CMM data will populate within your Form 3 spreadsheet. If you have already set your tolerances in GroundControl or in your CMM software, you will be able to immediately see whether your results are within tolerance.

You can add your uploaded CMM reports to certificates and packages.

Including CMM Reports

On sites with CMM access, the eCert controls and Configure Package list your uploaded CMM reports in upload order, and they are included by default. Choose up to 200 reports to append as PDF pages.

If a Report Cannot Be Read

A selected report that is missing or unreadable stops the export, so you will never receive a package that leaves it out.

Larger CMM Worksheets

Big worksheets are analyzed in batches and arrive as one combined review. Labels that name the feature before the number are read correctly.

Reading a PDF Report

CMM import can read measurements directly out of a PDF report.

Matching CMM Manager Layouts
Reports from CMM Manager, which place each feature in its own block, are matched to your characteristics automatically.